The Ubuntu Community Council has been working on a draft for version 2.0 of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct and has put out a call to the community for review and feedback. Feedback will be published on a wiki for public review, and discussion about it will take place at the public Community Council meeting in #ubuntu-meeting on May 3rd.

The Ubuntu Developer Advisory Team reached out to many new developers this development cycle and, as a part of that, "solicited feedback about our development process." They have now published a report available in PDF or text and hope "that it will help drive further discussion about our development processes, tools, and documentation in the lead up to UDS and over the course of the next cycle."

12.04 Presentation for Bay Area Linux Users Group (BALUG) and upcoming SF Release Party

Elizabeth Krumbach gives a summary of the Bay Area Linux Users Group presentation on the upcoming 12.04 release with Grant Bowman, including a link to a 12.04 handout printed up for the event. Krumbach goes on to announce the upcoming release party for 12.04 in San Francisco on Thursday, April 26th at Thirsty Bear Brewing Company.

Following some unintentional regressions impacting the browser, Curtis Hovey details his attempts to find an easy and reliable way to develop and test Launchpad with Internet Explorer, used by 4% of Launchpad's users. Given the details of his tests thus far, Hovey asks the community for feedback to help him improve them further.

Curtis Hovey shares some changes in Launchpad that now make setting up commercial projects easier, including enabling of a short term (30 day) free commercial subscription, and details of some of the private tools available.

Jonathan Carter talks about a new trend of educators using iPads as a means of helping students. He raises a concern as to whether such technology actually helps or hinders student success, and examines a common viewpoint from teachers that they are "magical devices that will do a lot of the teaching for them." Jonathan considers how Edubuntu could be made even better for schools, and discusses how it's time for an official Edubuntu device where teachers would be able to "choose which software, ebooks, courseware and other tools are installed on which device."

Pasi Lallinaho writes that with Precise nearly out the door, the Xubuntu team have started looking ahead to the quickly-approaching Q cycle. The team hopes to focus on some key areas of improvement within the Xubuntu project, including a redefined community, improved communication, a boost in devotion, and better planning. The four-year-old Strategy Document also is in need of a revamp, including an updated mission statement and a focus on clarity.

The Lubuntu team is showing off a sleek new icon theme that will soon land in Lubuntu. The icons are released under the GPL license and will work in other desktop environments, like Unity and Gnome Shell, as well.

Michael Hall tells how Ubuntu 12.04 is catering to App Developers to make creating and distributing their applications as simple as possible. He talks about the developer portal, and how it can not only help developers get started writing their applications, but can also make packaging and distributing them a piece of cake. The goal is for Ubuntu 12.04 to be "a rich platform for app developers to target," where the Ubuntu Software Center has "the means of delivering those apps directly to over 12 million users worldwide." As you would expect with the communal spirit of the project, the community of app developers is a great place to communicate with, and gain helpful tips from, other developers, and will hopefully continue to grow through this LTS release and beyond.

The top 10 applications downloaded from the Ubuntu Software Center, both commercial and free, have been announced from the month of March. Games like Steel Storm: Burning Retribution, Uplink, and Oil Rush take the top spots for paid apps, while Ryzom, a MMORPG, takes top place for free applications. Digital magazines like Ubuntu User and Linux Format are perhaps the most interesting items, given their new inclusion in the software center.

Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon points out the differences between the developer community and the other communities associated with Ubuntu. He highlights the importance of this community and discusses ways of growing it.

David Wonderly of Kubuntu gives a summary of recent changes to the Kubuntu project, and discusses current concerns about use of the Kubuntu trademark with the move of Kubuntu's sponsorship from Canonical to Blue Systems.

Elizabeth Krumbach of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter team gives an update on progress the news team has made since her last update in August and puts out another call to the community for summary writers and editors.

Jorge Castro: The Eiffel Tower is in London. EDIT: I mean Paris. EDIT: Improving User Support

On the topic of user support, Jorge Castro explains that "one of best things you can do to improve the quality of the site is to get information out of the user." Castro goes on to say that while this is hard, one way to do this is by showing the person how to get the information they need and goes on to explain how to use the AskUbuntu mechanism for improving questions.

ZDNet correspondent Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols takes a look at the latest offering from Canonical called AWESOME (Any Web Service Over Me) that makes it easy to deploy hybrid cloud workloads across both Amazon and Openstack clouds in the attempt to become your cloud solution of choice.

ITWorld takes a deeper look at the recent blog post by Ubuntu Community Manager, Jono Bacon, calling on the creation and development of the developer community in Ubuntu contrasting it to the seeming lack of development from Canonical with regards to the Linux kernel and Gnome etc.

Christopher Tozzi, of the VAR Guy, points out that when HP launches its Cloud platform in May, supported versions of Ubuntu will include Ubuntu 10.04 through Ubuntu 11.10. Also included will be Debian Squeeze and CentOS Versions 6.2 and 5.6. Tozzi also says, "HP promises "to add support for more operating systems as our public cloud offering evolves.""

Tozzi also adds, "More importantly, Ubuntu is the only distribution in the lineup with direct commercial backing, since Debian and CentOS are community projects with arguably less appeal to customers seeking paid support offerings."

OMG! Ubuntu! highlights another spotting of Ubuntu in the wild, this time from The Huffington Post. In a recent feature of the 'Ten Best Jobs in the US,' the image used is of a girl using Ubuntu on a multi-monitor setup to illustrate the role of a Computer Systems Engineer.

Christopher Tozzi, of the VAR Guy reviews Ubuntu One and compares it to the other file-syncing and streaming services. In this article Tozzi looks at what differentiates Ubuntu One from its competitors.

Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu! showcases the new merchandise centered around the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS which is now available in the Ubuntu Shop. New and updated products include a branded flash drive with the 12.04 live installer, stylish new bags, and the official t-shirt for the cycle with the Precise Pangolin design on the front.

After sighting Ubuntu being used in an hotel in Marseille, France earlier in the year Christopher Tozzi, the VAR Guy, takes a look at several reasons why he believes Ubuntu is a viable solution for small business.

Appearing in an Indian crime thriller, CID, Ubuntu has makes an appearance in a this local Indian serial TV show. Complete with "computer experts" and "hackers" it looks like Ubuntu is being spotted in "prime time" around the globe. The post includes screenshots of the sightings and descriptions around what takes place in each scene.

Robbie Williamson, Director of Ubuntu Server Engineering at Canonical writes on his blog, "With the release of Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS quickly approaching, the Ubuntu Server Team has been working extremely hard on ensuring OpenStack Essex will be of high quality and tightly integrated into Ubuntu Cloud."

Williamson also introduces the Ubuntu Cloud Achieve and takes time to answer various questions, discusses backports, their plan for ensuring stability and quality, and looks to the future of OpenStack support and maintenance in 14.04.

In a 19 April press release Canonical announced, "the imminent certification and support of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, a leading Linux-based server operating system, on select HP ProLiant servers. Ubuntu drivers and management software delivered by HP will be included as part of HP ProLiant hardware warranty support. This will include the latest HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) servers." On the same day as the press release Mark Baker wrote on the Canonical blog what that really means, and why Canonical is excited about this certification.
Baker concludes his post, "The resulting announcement of support for Ubuntu on ProLiant (alongside other Linux platforms) is a signal to organisations of all kinds that the IT landscape is changing."

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate